Demons, Yarns & Tales is the title of a exhibition that took place in November 2008.
Christopher and Suzanne Sharp founders of the rug company invited a group of internationally renowned artists to explore a medium foreign to their usual practice, we were asking them to take a voyage into the unknown, leaving their area of comfort to work in unfamiliar territory. The medium was that of Tapestry; a lost art made redundant by the sheer expense of its production and non-compliance within a world impatient to conform to the ease of mass-production in an era of convenience. The art of Tapestry and the knowledge of its craft faded long ago in much the same way as the magnificent tapestries themselves disintegrated.

The exhibition was an experiment within this lost world and addresses themes of translation and transformation. The works pose visual and tactile questions concerning the translation of meaning. Three years in the making, the exhibition reveals the shifting transformation of each artist’s unique visual style from his or her known medium into the uncharted and the unknown. Initially, the physical medium itself becomes apparent and appears engaging and challenging. The artist is preoccupied with technical matters: unfamiliar colours, the texture of the material, the properties of the different 'threads' and the complexity of the weave. Then, as the work develops, the new medium begins to contribute to, rather than compromise, the finished work; giving birth to a thoroughly contemporary art form, evolving naturally from its historical past. The handwoven setting proves itself to be an alternative 'soft' canvas; warm, tactile, able to represent ideas and images on a vast scale, both in terms of imagination and physical presence.

The artists that participated in the project are:
Kara Walker, Grayson Perry, Batriz Milhazes
Fred Tomaselli, Ghada Amer & Reza, Gavin Turk, Jaime Gili, AVAF, Paul Noble, Julie Verhofen, Gary Hume, Farancesca Lowe, Shahzia Sikander, Pater Blake

Kara Walker

Peter Blake

Shahzia Sikander

With the exhibition came a beautiful book. With an introduction by Sarah Kent .

I would have loved to see the exhibition, luckily I have the book. The Tapestry are all all amazing. It's very impressive to see the transformation from one medium to the other.

read this extract from sarah kents introduction :

"With its infinitesimal variations on the colour grey, Paul Noble’s minutely detailed drawing must have presented an almost impossible challenge. Then there’s the problem of how to achieve diagonals and curves; because a tapestry is made from interlocking vertical and horizontal threads, it is virtually impossible to create curving or diagonal lines that don’t have a stepped profile. With its fleet of triangular shapes aligned on the diagonal, Jaime Gili’s painting could have been made for the express purpose of testing the weavers’ ingenuity. And with her web of interlocking arcs and circles, Beatriz Milhazes must have created similarly intractable problems. Yet in each case, the weavers have managed to produce clean, sharp outlines that, to the naked eye, appear absolutely fluent – not a zig-zag in sight! The weaving house making the tapestries is in China, where this is not a traditional craft. The company was set up only ten years ago and employs the Flemish weaving techniques used by the famous tapestry makers of Aubusson. It takes a long time to produce each tapestry partly because of the intricacy of the work, but also because the factory is situated in a rural community north of Shanghai and the weavers, all of whom are women, work part time so they can be free to help in the fields and gather in the harvest."

I've been very touched by Kara Walkers Tapestry "A warm summer Evening in 1863" it's based on a engraving first published in a newpaper; it shows rioters burning and looting an orphanage for colored children in New York. As the flames take hold, black children flee the building only to be met by the angry mob. The scene is partially hidden by the silhouette of a hanged woman - the victim of a lynching.
The incident happened in the civil war during the draft riots. The whole scene is incredibly cruel yet very beautiful and on the medium of tapestry it get utterly confusing.

visit the Demons, Yarns & Tales website www.bannersofpersuasion.com

Always when I'm in Belgrade I'm puzzled by my reaction to the romas on the streets. Many romas live in Belgrade, you see them begging on the street, searching through the waste for cardboard and other recyclable stuff but you also pass the roma slums in novi Belgrade. I'm always upset by the poverty they live in, fascinated by the way they look but unfortunately most of all I'm full of mistrust. I'm grown up with a liberal education my parents used to travel a lot and often took me along. On our travels through spain and portugal but also later in Ireland I  came across many romas and never been deprived of something or threatened by any roma. The mistrust against roma people seems to be enrooted deep in our society.

I came across a very nice book on the roma people. Roma Realities – Decade 2005-2015, a new book from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and the World Bank, uses photographs and interviews with Roma experts to examine the results and ongoing challenges of the Decade.

A book about the results and ongoing challenges of the Decade of Roma Inclusion, combines documentary photography and interviews with Roma experts from South Eastern Europe. Produced by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and the World Bank, Roma Realities aims to reanimate the debate on Roma integration. The book is addressed to all those who are engaged in improving the access of Roma to quality education, health, housing and employment.
The book has been published by infolio.

The Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005–2015 is an unprecedented political commitment by European governments to improve the socio-economic status and social inclusion of Roma. The Decade is an international initiative that brings together governments, intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations, as well as Romani civil society, to accelerate progress toward improving the welfare of Roma and to review such progress in a transparent and quantifiable way. The Decade focuses on the priority areas of education, employment, health, and housing, and commits governments to take into account the other core issues of poverty, discrimination, and gender mainstreaming.
The photographs in the book are taken by Yves Leresche a swiss photographer who s spent month with the roma people.
In 2003, he already published a book with his works on the Rroms and exhibits the project at the Musée de l'Elysée, the photo museum in Lausanne. The final conclusion of his documentary on the Rroms obtains several prizes; Grand Prix of the Festival de Honfleur in 98, Festival de Biarritz in 03, in France, and his book (Benteli & Infolio) is qualified in 03 as being one of the most beautiful books of the year, in Switzerland.

I strongly recommend to scroll through this page where you can look at Yves Leresches roma pictures. Some pretty outstanding pictures, arranged by country and year.

An other Outstanding book from the berlin based Publisher Jacoby & Stuart.

Jacoby & Stuart was founded  in 2008 by Nicola Stuart and Edmund Jacoby.  They publish beautiful and ambitious kids books and  rich illustrated books.

A church, trees, some houses,; then a street, a factory , rails, skyscraper - from page to page of this pop up book grows a village to a modern city. Kids learn how a city takes shape and works.
The fathers of Bauhaus would have been immersed who paper engineering can manifest architecture and city planning. But also function follows form, as kids and parents will  develop their own ideas on urban planning development starting from this phase model. New architects needs the world.

Ein weiteres Buch des berliner Verlages Jacoby & Stuart.
Jacoby & Stuart wurde im März 2008 in Berlin von dem Verlegerehepaar Nicola Stuart und Edmund Jacoby gegründet und bringt ästhetisch und inhaltlich anspruchsvolle Kinderbücher, reich illustrierte und gut geschriebene Sachbücher und Bildbände heraus.

Eine Kirche, Bäume, ein paar Häuser; dann Straßen, Fabriken, Schienen, Hochhäuser – von Seite zu Seite dieses Pop-up-Buchs der neuen Generation wächst ein Dorf zu einer modernen Großstadt. Kinder lernen mit diesem Buch, wie eine Stadt entsteht und funktioniert.
Die Väter des Bauhauses hätten gestaunt, wie paper engineering Architektur und Städtebau sinnfällig machen kann Aber auch Function follows form, denn Kinder wie Erwachsene werden ihre eigenen städtebaulichen Ideen von diesem Phasenmodell ausgehen lassen: Neue Architekten und Ingenieure braucht das Land!

Pop-up City

Mit einem Text von Joy Sorman?Aus dem Französischen ?von Sarah Pasquay?16 Seiten, geb.,14 x 28 cm,
jacobystuart.de/

Outstanding book from the berlin based Publisher Jacoby & Stuart.
Jacoby & Stuart was founded  in 2008 by Nicola Stuart and Edmund Jacoby.  They publish beautiful and ambitious kids books and  rich illustrated books.

We got "Leute" as a present recently. A very special book. 208 beautiful Illustrations from the french illustrator Blexbolex.
From eskimos, to cowboys, to thinkers and friends. If you have a closer look one realizes the the illustrations correspond with each other. A book for kids and grownups.
The book is out in French and german and has the "Best Book design from all over the world" award.

Wunderbares Buch des berliner Verlages Jacoby & Stuart.
Jacoby & Stuart wurde im März 2008 in Berlin von dem Verlegerehepaar Nicola Stuart und Edmund Jacoby gegründet und bringt ästhetisch und inhaltlich anspruchsvolle Kinderbücher, reich illustrierte und gut geschriebene Sachbücher und Bildbände heraus.

Wir haben letzthin  "Leute" gekriegt ein wunderschönes Buch. Superschöne, Illustrationen des französischen Illustrator Blexbolex. 208 Seiten verschiedene  Leute. Cowboys, Denker, Eskimos, Streithähne. Bei genauem hinschauen Merkt man das die Leute nicht willkürlich nebeneinander stehen sondern es ergeben sich kleine "Geschichten" über die Seiten hinweg. Ein Buch an dem man sich kaum satt sehen kann. Für Kinder und Erwachsene.
Das Buch wurde mehrfach ausgezeichnet unter anderem mit dem "Best Bookdesign from all over the world"

jacobystuart.de/